RIPPLE TANK

PLANE WAVE
An object of known dimension is kept on the top of water and the size of image in the screen
is observed. Hence the magnification was found out.
Size of object, Io = 15.2 cm, size of image, Ii = 27 cm
Magnification = Ii /Io = 1.77
The frequency and the wavelength of the magnified
image is observed.

Frequency Wavelength (cm) Speed (cm/s)

(Hz)
20 2.2 44
30 1.4 42 Actual speed of the wave = observed
25 1.7 42.5 speed/magnification = 42.83/1.77 =
Average speed 42.83 24.19 cm/s

DIFFRACTION
When the plane wave fronts generated pass through a gap or a slit in a barrier, each point on
the wave acts as appoint source the superposition of
all those waves produced by these point sources is a
new plane wave front.
The spreading of plane wave front with a smaller slit
width and a larger one is measured, and it is observed
that the amount of diffraction for the smaller slit is
greater than the smaller one. It is also observed that
the amplitude has to be increased for the smaller slit
for observing clear diffraction pattern than the wider
slit. This is because, for diffraction to occur the
wavelength of the wave should be comparable to that
Figure 1smaller slit
of the slit and as the slit width decreases the ratio
Figure 2larger slit
between the wavelength and the slit width increases and the
angle of diffraction increases. When the slit width becomes small the wave that is passing
through it decreases since most of the wave from the source get reflected by the barrier.
Hence for the diffracted wave to have enough intensity the incident intensity has to be
increased.

When frequency is increased the wavelength decreases. This is because the product of both,
the speed of the wave has to be has to be constant.

The decrease in wavelength caused as a result of the decrease in the frequency causes the
wavelength to slit width ratio to decrease. Hence the spread of the diffracted wave decreases.
This was clearly observed in the experiment, when the frequency was gradually increased
from low to high keeping the slit width constant.

for 31 Hz angle = 20o for 15 Hz angle = 34o for 10 Hz angle = 37o

INTERFERENCE AND SPEED OF

SURFACE WAVES
When the slits are made very small, the wave emerging
from the slits behave like point sources. So interference
takes place. The waves from each of the slits is of the
same phase but due to difference in the path length of
the two waves, there are places where crest and crest
meet and trough and trough meet (regions where
constructive interference occurs) and places where peak
and valley meet (regions where destructive interference
occur). The regions of constructive interference can be seen as the place where bright band or
dark is obtained and the region of destructive interference is seen as the region with an
intermediate brightness.
For constructive interference the following condition has to be satisfied.
 𝑑𝑠𝑖𝑛𝜃 = 𝑛𝜆
Here, n is the order of the maxima, 𝜃 is the angle made by the maxima with the zero order
maxima, d is the separation between the slit and 𝜆 is the wavelength of the wave.
The wave length of the wave in the zero order, first order and second order maxima are 𝜆1 ,
𝜆2 , 𝜆3 respectively. The average wavelength is measured and multiplied by frequency to get
velocity of surface water.

Sl no. Frequency Wavelength Average Velocity of

𝜆1 𝜆2 𝜆3 wavelength surface water
1 20 Hz 0.92 cm 1.04 cm 1.10 cm 1.02 cm 22.0 cm/s
2 25 Hz 0.80 cm 0.92 cm 0.88 cm 0.86 cm 21.5 cm/s
3 30 Hz 0.73 cm 0.80 cm 0.80 cm 0.77 cm 23.3 cm/s
(the wavelengths obtained on the screen are divided by the magnification factor)
Average velocity of water = 22.26 cm/s

The depth to which water was filled was measured and found to be, h = 0.5 cm
The acceleration due to gravity is 980 cms-2
From the equation for velocity given, the speed of the wave is

𝑐 = √𝑔ℎ

So, the calculated speed is 22.13 cm/s

The measured value is very close to the calculated value.

DOPPLER EFFECT
The apparent change in frequency of a wave due to relative motion between the source and
the observer is called doppler effect. In a case where the source is moving away from the
observer with velocity vs, and the observer is moving towards source, with velocity vo the
apparent frequency observed by the observer is
𝑣 − 𝑣𝑜
𝑓𝑎𝑝𝑝 = ( )𝑓
𝑣 − 𝑣𝑠 0
Where v is the speed of the wave and f0 is the frequency when there is no relative motion
between the source and the observer.
since
𝑣 = 𝑓𝜆
apparent wavelength,
𝑣
𝜆𝑎𝑝𝑝 =
𝑓𝑎𝑝𝑝

When measurement of wavelength is made in the region

ahead of motion of the source, it is the case when the source
is moving towards observer. When the measurement is made
in the region where the source has already passed, it is the
case when the source is moving away from the observer. The
frequency of the wave generator is set to 30 Hz and the
wavelength of the wave in the two regions are measured as shown in the figure.
The wavelength of the image is magnified so the actual wavelengths are found by dividing it
with magnification factor. Let parameters with subscripts 1 and 2 represent the part of the
wave ahead and behind the source respectively and let 0 represent the initial parameters,
Then,
𝑣 𝑓0
𝑓1 = =
𝜆1 𝑣 − 𝑣𝑠
𝑣 𝑓0
𝑓2 = =
𝜆2 𝑣 + 𝑣𝑠
On simplification,
𝑓0 1
𝑣𝑠 = (𝜆2 − 𝜆1 ) = (𝜆 − 𝜆1 )
2𝑣 2𝜆0 2
𝝀𝟎 𝝀𝟏 𝝀𝟐
0.73 cm 0.62 cm 0.99 cm

1
Plugging the values into the equation, 𝑣𝑠 = (0.99 − 0.62) = 0.253 𝑐𝑚𝑠 −1
2×0.73